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Undergrad Institution: (National University of Cordoba, Argentina)
Major(s): Aeronautical Engineering
Minor(s): There is no Minor in my university
GPA in Major:(8.67/10) equivalent to 3.7 in the US... (according to scholarlo)
Overall GPA:(8.67/10) equivalent to 3.7 in the US
Length of Degree: I did the first 2 years, then I took a gap year to work on a research project and after that I transfer to Balseiro Institute to study Physics.
Position in Class: first of my class in the first two years(very hard to achieve perfect GPA in the aeronautics department of UNC)
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Undergrad Institution: (Balseiro Institute, Argentina) best in my country and one of the best of LATAM for studying Physics (Only 15 new students per year)
Major(s): Physics
Minor(s): There is no Minor in my university
GPA in Major:(8.37/10) equivalent to 3.7 in the US... (according to scholarlo)
Overall GPA:(8.37/10) equivalent to 3.7 in the US
Length of Degree: 2.5 years
Position in Class: middle (best students of all the country)
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Graduate Institution: (Balseiro Institute, Argentina)
Major(s): Technological Physics
Minor(s): There is no Minor in my university
GPA in Major:(9/10) equivalent to 4.0 GPA in the US... (according to scholarlo)
Overall GPA:(9/10) equivalent to 4.0 GPA in the US
Length of Degree: 1.5 years
Position in Class: I was the only one studying a Ms. in Technological Physics
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Type of Student: International,Male , White Latino
GRE Scores: couldn't take it because quarantine and $$$ (I am very poor and my country put many limitations on the population to buy things online, mainly everything that has to be paid in dollars)
TOEFL: had COVID by test date, so I had to change it and then I took the exam almost without preparation because of a tight agenda (f&%k covid) but decent score anyway (explained in my SoP)
Research Experience:
-1.5 years at home Institution in the development of metalic foams recycling AZ91 shavings. 1 paper as co-author, speaker at International congress in Material Science.
-3 Months at Balseiro Institute, Nanostructured perovskite LaFeO3 fabrication, characterization and resposne to VOCs. No paper but 3 congress presentations as speaker, 1 of them was an international congress.
-7 Months at Balseiro Institute, Development of High Entropy Alloys. 2 papers as first author, 1 of them in a Q1 top 10 material Journal and the other in revision at the moment of application. Also 4 presentations as a speaker in several congresses, one of them international and in other country.
-Undergraduate (and Master degree) thesis in development of a software simulation for a famous private satellite manufacturer company of Argentina. The thesis was about a Hall Effect Thruster simulation and it was on a confidential agreement with the company and other multinational from Turkey. Presentation of work as a guest speaker in a National congress of physics.
To summarize: 9 presentations (as a speaker) in congresess with one award and 3 papers (two published and 1 in revision) and two of them as first author).
Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Best poster presentation Award at a crystalography congress. First author.
Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Mentor of a finalist team in a space competition. The team mentored by me turned out to be among the top 5 teams (of 200)
Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: Leader of a team that currently is developing a lunar rover, very confidential so I can not say much of this (btw I gave more detailed information in the SoP but asked for confidentiality).
Special Bonus Points: 3 strong LoR's, one of them from the Aerospace Division CTO of a very important aerospace company of Argentina, with connections to NASA and also SpaceX
Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: -
Applying to Where: (Plasma physics to all of them except MIT)
¿Beyond Reach? :
MIT - AeroAstro PHD
Princeton - PHD at PPPL <3
Caltech - PHD Applied Physics
UCLA - Physics PHD
¿Reach?
UCSD - Physics PHD
Michigan Ann Arbor - Engineering Physics PHD
Wisconsin Madison - Physics PHD
(yes only 7)
¿secure?
None, go big or go home... btw I did not have enough money so I tried to apply to my dreams universities and well... Let's see how it ends. If I'm not selected in any University I'm going to try again next year but with 1 more year of experience simulating space plasmas in the industry and maybe with more money. The other option is to apply to Europe in Jan, Feb 2021 for the fall semester (I am 25 years old and I do not want to wait too much time for starting a PHD)... I will wait to the response of US Universities first.